Offbeat Thousands of teachers, students descend on North Carolina's capitol in protest

18:01 17 may 2018

18:01 17 may 2018 Source:
foxnews.com

North Carolina teachers rally for more funds in latest U.S. school walk-out

<p>Thousands of North Carolina teachers were expected to rally at the capitol on Wednesday for higher pay and increased education spending in a walk-out that follows similar protests from teachers in other states seeking more money for schools.</p>The protests are part of a wave of actions and strikes this year by teachers in states including West Virginia, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Arizona and Colorado who feel lawmakers have failed to adequately pay teachers and provide for schools.

Through pouring rain and scorching heat, more than 30,000 students and teachers marched to North Carolina ’ s state capitol in Raleigh for the “March for Students and Rally for Respect” to fight back against unfair pay and RALEIGH, N . C . – First, thousands protest in Arizona and Colorado.

Hoisting signs that read “Let us teach !” and chanting “enough is enough,” more than 2,000 Florida teachers descended onto the state Capitol on Thursday for a rally to protest statewide education policies they criticized as being harmful to both students and teachers .

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First, thousands protest in Arizona and Colorado.

Now, through pouring rain and scorching heat, crowds of students and teachers — more than 30,000, according to one estimate — marched to North Carolina’s state capital in Raleigh for the “March for Students and Rally for Respect,” fighting what they’ve called unfair pay and inadequate learning environments in schools across the state.

“You never retire, and you’re always caring,” said Judy Justice, a retired teacher. “Look at these thousands of people. It’s hot out here, and a lot of us aren’t young and this isn’t easy. Some of us have been here since eight this morning.”

Thousands of North Carolina teachers set to rally over pay

Thousands of teachers are set to hit the streets of North Carolina's capital, bidding to force a political showdown over wages and funding for public school classrooms in this conservative, tax-cutting state. As many as 15,000 teachers are expected to defy forecasts of rain to gather Wednesday morning in Raleigh as the Republican-dominated state legislature begins its annual session. Previous strikes, walkouts and protests in West Virginia, Arizona, Kentucky, Colorado and Oklahoma have led legislators in each state to improve pay, benefits or overall school funding.

Tens of thousands gathered Saturday in the North Carolina capital of Raleigh on Saturday for what organizers are calling one of the largest civil rights rallies in the South since the Selma to Montgomery march in 1965. National Teacher of the Year Silently Protests as Trump Awards Prize. 3.

People gathered to protest HB2 in Raleigh, North Carolina . But as massive throngs of protesters descended on the North Carolina capitol building in Raleigh on Monday to call for the repeal of the bill often called HB2, scattered among the crowd were several signs reading “My faith doesn’t

She says they are all doing it for the kids.

“It started in 2010 when they started cutting teacher aides, and then they have cut supplies,” Justice said. “We haven’t had books since 2010-2011. Kids are suffering. Teachers have to send out supply lists every year so kids can have Kleenex and things like paper towels by the end of the year.”

“For us it is personal. Together we say enough is enough,” said Mark Jewell, president of the North Carolina Association of Educators (NCAE).

“We want teachers to be well-paid, and most importantly, we want our students to have the freedom to learn in the proper environment,” Mims said.

Almost all teachers spend their own money on school needs: study

Almost all public school teachers surveyed in a new report say they spent some of their own money to cover school supplies, according to a study released Tuesday.&nbsp;The National Center of Education Statistics found that nearly all public school teachers spent their own money on school needs, spending on average close to &dollar;480 a year on school supplies. That average is nearly double the &dollar;250 federal tax deduction available to teachers.

Thousands have descended on the state capitol in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, to Thousands of teachers in Kentucky have walked out of their classrooms on Monday to protest a surprise pension 'We've all heard stories from students , parents, and teachers affected by eleven years of cuts to our

Thousands of Kentucky teachers fill Capitol to protest education, pension cuts. Stephanie Winkler, the statewide teacher union president, encouraged teachers , parents and students to rally Monday to remind lawmakers to keep students ' best interest in mind as they vote for the state budget.

In a Tuesday press conference, lawmakers said the average teacher pay will grow to $53,000, not including local supplements or bonuses, an increase from the current average salary of $49,000, according to a study by the National Center for Education Statistics.

“We are doing something important, we are not raising taxes to do this,” said Speaker of the House Tim Moore.

Republican legislators say state House and Senate budget leaders officially have committed to at least a 6.2 percent increase in teachers’ salaries in the coming fiscal year.

“This commitment marks the fifth year that we have increased teacher pay,” Moore said. “Teachers will have received an average pay raise of $8,600.”

Moore says more than 40,000 of the state’s teachers and nearly half of all public school teachers will have received at least a $10,000 pay raise on an annual basis.

Thousands of North Carolina teachers marched. Now what?

North Carolina politicians and the public are waiting to see what happens next after thousands of teachers rallied to demand increased spending on public schools. An estimated 19,000 people marched through the state's capital city."What are you prepared to do?" the woman in the red "RESPECT public education" T-shirt shouted into the microphone Wednesday afternoon.

Subscribed, but don't have a login? Activate your digital access. Thousands of students descend You will not turn a blind eye to who they are. They are our students , our teachers and our coaches. Students hold signs in protest at the Capitol Wednesday. Karl Etters/Democrat. Fullscreen.

As thousands of Colorado school teachers get ready to descend on their state capitol this week Thousands of teachers , students converge on Oklahoma and Kentucky capitals for labor rallies. They have the right to assemble, protest , associate, demonstrate whatever they wish and I would

“Last year we were the number one state in the country for increasing teacher pay,” he said.

But according to NEA, the national average starting teacher salary is $38,617.

“Thirty-seventh in the country for teacher pay is unacceptable,” Governor Roy Cooper said to the roaring crowd as they chanted, “Teachers united, we’ll never be divided.”

“We know this is more than about teacher pay. It’s about respect. It’s personal,” Cooper said.

“There became this kind of climate where folks really felt like teachers are being disrespected, schools are being disrespected,” said Michael Maher, assistant dean for professional education at North Carolina State University. “And that kind of came on the heels of the recession, and if you follow what happened in North Carolina, we were hit pretty hard by the recession.”

A majority of states across the country cut school funding after the recession of 2008 hit. It took many years for states to restore their funding.

He says if coupled with what has happened more recently, in terms of more money being available, those raises disproportionately have been pushed toward beginning teachers.

Mexico arrests new suspect in killing of 3 film students

Mexican authorities said they arrested a third suspect Thursday in the killing of three film students who were abducted, tortured and dissolved in acid, a crime that caused national outrage. Interior Minister Alfonso Navarrete said the suspect, identified only as Jonathan "N," was arrested in a dawn raid by federal police in the city of Metepec, in central Mexico, after a manhunt across four states involving several security agencies.Navarrete called it an important advance in "a very painful and very symbolic case.

North Carolina . Thousands of teachers descended on the Arizona State Capitol Wednesday to demand increases to public education funding. March 28, 2018, at 10:26 p.m.

North Carolina . Arizona teachers and education advocates march at the Arizona Capitol protesting low teacher pay and school funding Wednesday, March 28, 2018, in Phoenix. Thousands of Arizona teachers are beginning to descend on the state Capitol demanding higher

“I think what has happened to some degree is you have veteran teachers really feeling disrespected over what has happened in 2013 to today,” Maher said.

While many teachers argue they are advocates for equal pay for both veteran as well as new teachers, their focus is not specifically on pay raises.

They have a list of issues they would like addressed ranging from support for public education to provisions of adequate school supplies for students.

All of the 2016-17 state expenditures for public schools were attributed to salaries and benefits except for nearly six percent, according to the February public school budget from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction Highlights.

Many teachers argued lawmakers should be investing in digital learning, counseling for students and better infrastructure, among other issues.

“We do fund textbooks … it’s not only textbooks now, but we are moving to a lot of digital-based learning,” Moore said. “You are seeing more money being spent on digital as opposed to the traditional textbooks.”

“Remember we haven’t started the session yet, so what the budget is going to look like will materialize as we move forward,” said State Senator Phil Berger.

Moore says he appreciates what state employees are doing and expects they will get some kind of a raise, “but I’ll have to come back on a later date to get the numbers on that.”

Both legislators say they already have made progress during the beginning of the session by making agreements on taxes and pay raises, but say there are still things that need to be worked on.

California high schoolers write gun control legislation, will introduce it to local government .
A group of California high schoolers has written their own gun control legislation and plan to introduce it to their local government, the Pasadena Star-News reported. Students in a government class at Alhambra High School, located outside of Los Angeles, wrote up the resolution in the wake of the mass shooting at a Parkland, Fla. high school earlier this year.The resolution raises the minimum age to purchase a gun from 18 to 25, requires shooting and safety training for gun owners, stops online sales of firearms and closes the gun show loophole for gun purchases.

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